Boy Like Me, Man Like You

When we are kids, we identify with the personalities of the Bible through the narratives that our parents, Sunday School teachers and preachers relate to us about them. We can't read at all or not at least beyond a basic level, and so our ideas about God are highly impacted by what others tell us about God. This can be both a positive and negative experience for individuals and the development of faith.

People raised to respect, honor, love and be affectionate toward God oft grow up into adults who become some of our best church workers. Children taught to fear, dread, run from and mistrust God often blame God for the problems of adolescence and adulthood and have relationships with God that are far from healthy.

One of the best ways to relate people to God is by telling the stories of the life of Jesus. After all, Jesus is God personified in human flesh. We can relate to Jesus in a way that we cannot relate to the other 2/3 of the Trinity. Jesus had many experiences that we have shared. Birth. Growth. Friendship. Betrayal. Love. Family issues. Pain. Luke 2:52 tells us that Jesus, "...grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man." This four-fold growth takes place (or fails to) in the life of every individual. The Jesus of Luke 2 was a boy who, in many ways, was just like me.

Christian artist Rich Mullins wrote the following song entitled "Boy Like Me, Man Like You" to describe the comparison of his own childhood to that of Jesus.

"You was a baby like I was once
You was cryin' in the early mornin'
You was born in a stable Lord
Reid Memorial is where I was born
They wrapped You in swaddling clothes
Me they dressed in baby blue

I was twelve years old in the meeting house
Listening to the old men pray
And I was tryin' hard to figure out
What it was that they was tryin' to say
There You were in the temple
They said You weren't old enough
To know the things You knew

Well, did You grow up hungry?
Did You grow up fast?
Did the little girls giggle when You walked past?
Did You wonder what it was
That made them laugh?

CHORUS
Did they tell You stories
'bout the saints of old?
Stories about their faith?
They say stories like that make a boy grow bold
Stories like that make a man walk straight

You was a boy like I was once
But was You a boy like me
Well, I grew up around Indiana
You grew up around Galilee
And if I ever really do grow up
Lord I want to grow up and be just like You

Did You wrestle with a dog and lick his nose?
Did You play beneath the spray
Of a water hose?
Did You ever make angels in the winter snow?

Did You ever get scared
Playing hide and seek?
Did You try not to cry
When You scraped Your knee?
Did You ever skip a rock across a quiet creek?

And I really may just grow up
And be like You someday."

While the love of God is far beyond all we could imagine, we can see its demonstration in the life and ministry of Jesus. Not all of Christ's life was ministry; much of it was the ordinary daily events that you and I experience just as He did. I hope and pray we can meet all of life's challenges and opportunities with the mind, heart and spirit of Jesus.

blessings,

-Will